Yep–that’s a made up word. But this was one of the weirder recipes I’ve tried and I can’t quite figure out why, so they get a name that’s equally as odd as the finished product itself.

This is from a super pretty English book called The Perfect Start to Your Day. Tonia George is a food writer and photographer and man, it shows! The photographs in this book are really stunning, and the rest of the recipes sound delicious.

And don’t get me wrong–it’s not that these muffins aren’t delicious–they’re just not very sweet, and they don’t really look like muffins. Truly, they’re like soft mini-scones.

I tend to like my baked goods on the very sweet side, so I think that could be why these weren’t a hit for me. Then again, the British baking recipes I’ve used tend to be less sweet than American ones are, so it might just be my taste buds.

I wonder if it’s because I used Greek yogurt instead of regular old yogurt that they turned out more scone-y? Or perhaps it was the crunchy peanut butter? (Which, by the way, despite my confusion over the title…really does go well with the milk chocolate chips. Mmm.)

Either way, if try your hand at the recipe below, let me know if they turn out muffin-y or scone-y. I would love to know what I did to make them turn out this way!

As always, major thanks to the lovely ladies at Anthropologie Milwaukee! The set-up was so beautiful this month (seriously, those marble cake stands!? I think they must be sold out since I can’t even find them online), and you guys are just the sweetest.

By the way… I am really excited because next month is the FIRST ANNIVERSARY of Tasting Tuesdays!!! (Caps and excessive exclamation points entirely necessary.) I can’t believe I’ve been baking my way through Anthro’s cookbook collection for a whole year! We have some super exciting things planned for the celebration, as well as for next year, so mark your calendars for September 18! I hope to see you there!!

In fact, the only thing that was recognizable and acceptable to me in this recipe was butter. (And I’m pretty sure it’s the only sweets recipe in this whole book that uses butter instead of coconut oil. Woah! I am not that brave–although the carnival cookies with popcorn, peanuts, chocolate chips was pretty tempting.)

Despite all the healthy grains, I DID like the idea of maple syrup. And I have heard so many great things about Heidi Swanson. So I figured, well–there is still butter in it–so it can’t possibly be THAT bad!

Ooh. Ooh man. These guys are great. They definitely taste healthy–but they are still moist and light, and they have a lovely dense maple aftertaste that just echoes a little bit in the background. It’s not too sweet, it’s not too granola-crunchy-healthful. It is really a perfect in between.

It’s hard to find baked goods with an array of flavors like this–so in my book these muffins are winners. If you happen to have all this healthy stuff in your pantry, by all means make these for breakfast! I know I will be. If not–I bet you could fiddle with a creative adaptation or just invest in the whole wheat bran business. It’s good for you.

My thanks, as always, to the lovely ladies of Milwaukee Anthropologie–who were sweet enough to reschedule this month’s Tasting Tuesdays AND let me come in super early to set up. You guys are stars.

And one more thing… if I type it in a blog post, that means it’s true, right? I think (gulp) I might try making macarons for next month’s event. Eep! Let me know if you have any tips…!

I was going to make something gluten-free, I swear, but then I opened up Home Made by Yvette van Boven… and that was it. I was done.

Yvette van Boven is a super-talented cook-baker-artist from the Netherlands. This book is gorgeous–half illustrated diary, half recipe collection. The gingerbread muffins recipe was so ridiculously adorable looking (evidence above) that I couldn’t resist baking it.

And the muffins are really lovely: moist, spicy, sweet, simple, and extremely easy. Although she suggests a cream cheese based frosting, I whipped up an easy royal icing for some crunch to balance the softness of the muffins.

By the way, you might be wondering: really, Chelsea? You’re calling these muffins? They look like cupcakes to me… Shh. Muffins are much easier to eat five in a row of than cupcakes. So they’re muffins. Just spiced, sweet muffins.

These keep well in an airtight container, so you should make them for holiday brunches… for pre-Thanksgiving snacks… for Christmas morning… to leave for Santa… For every night of Hannukah… Oh man, I’m getting a little too excited about the holidays, aren’t I?! I’m blaming Anthropologie’s pretty displays–I got a preview of the holiday windows: just you wait, people, Kim’s windows are going to be amazing! (Not to mention what’s in store right now… I mean. Have you seen these tea towels used in the display? They’re sparkly teacups in the shape of a Christmas tree. Too much.)

As always, thanks so much to the Milwaukee Anthropologie! The display was lovely and all the staff were so sweet, especially Emily and Lynn! (Last, can I just share? When I popped in for a bit of shopping earlier that week, the ladies called me “our baker” at the cash register. Yes, that totally made my entire month!)

But if you like your muffins super cheesy, slightly spicy (it’s the cayenne pepper), and very savory, then these are the breakfast treats for you. Be warned, sweet teeth: there’s only a hint of brown sugar in here, and the muted flavor of pumpkin really acts as nothing more than a colorful backdrop for white cheddar.

You probably could have told me this before I went through the trouble of baking these things, but it turns out I am not a fan of savory muffins. I mean. I am really not. That bite you see in these pictures? … That was the only bite I took. The rest of the dozen went straight to the ol’ workplace for sharing.

Luckily, museum people on the whole seem to be savory muffin fans (although I noticed peak snack times were more at lunch than at breakfast). These muffins are crazy-easy to make and would be great at a brunch buffet–where ideally your guests are a little more attuned to the needs of their sweet tooth than I am.

Psst… Guess what, paper lovers? You can now print my recipes! Just click on the little print or PDF icon below the recipe. Continue reading →

Here’s what’s going on with me and breakfast. We had a good thing going for a while. Cheerios and milk. Predictable, reliable. Then I decided to switch to drinking organic milk after a somewhat traumatic and eye-opening trip to a Wisconsin farm. No big deal. I get tastier milk on my cereal in the morning, and I support local farmers and happy cows, right?

WRONG! So. Wrong. I have bought organic milk twice now. And it tastes weird. Kind of metallic and plastic-y. What is up with that!? I wish I knew. I googled it and found some uneasy solace in message boards proclaiming a worldwide dairy conspiracy. More practically and less globally, I just hate going to the grocery store every other day. What’s a locavore girl to do?

Needless to say, for the past two weeks, breakfast has not been my pal. It’s been chocolate chip granola bars and coffee around here. Maybe some O.J. to get some vitamins in there. (In the beginning of this tragedy, there was also cake, but two bites of insanely rich cake does not a breakfast make.) None of those things are good for your first meal of the day. They are not filling. Which is, of course, the whole point of having breakfast in the first place.

Luckily, though, as often happens in life, as in baking (sage metaphor coming right up), challenges lead to creativity. And so it was with my organic-milk-breakfast-dilemma. Walking home from work today, I thought to myself, HANG ON. I have buttermilk. I have butter. I have some eggs. I have cranberries. I have oats. I have spices. I have walnuts. I am making myself muffins for breakfast. At least until I get off my lazy butt and go to the grocery store for some new milk.

So that is what I did. I made these as the sun was setting, for tomorrow morning (now you get the title right?). You can put whatever you have in your pantry in these things. I put in a bunch of oats so they are healthy. (That’s a lie–don’t kid yourself–these are full of brown sugar and butter.) I put in walnuts for crunch, allspice for some dark background spiciness, and cranberries for tartness and a little bit of sunset color. But any nuts, dried or fresh fruit will be good in these things.

Breakfast problem solved. Except for the fact that now I’m not really sure I’m ever going to want to go back to plain old cereal and milk again… Continue reading →

Ready your eyes, friends. These muffins are not pretty. Not even the photos are pretty, because I made these on a dreary cold evening in the Midwest and the light is pretty poor.

But I am posting them anyway because this is the best muffin recipe I have, and despite their very blue appearance, they were scrumptious. Yes, that’s right, I said it. Scrumptious. I ate three when they were barely cooled. No shame here.

I leave you with this parting discovery: Frozen blueberries thaw very quickly. Even in your frigid apartment, where only in below-zero Wisconsin weather will you begrudgingly turn on your heat. You might think letting them sit for a couple minutes while you mix in the buttermilk would be just fine, but no: you will have bright blue, marbled muffins. Don’t get me wrong. Your muffins will still be delicious…